Sunday, December 11, 2011

Christmas comics: SPARKY (1969)

Beginning a seasonal look back at some Christmas comics of the past. Today, DC Thomson's classic comic Sparky No.258, dated December 27th 1969. Although it didn't have the impact of Vic Neill's cover for the 1970 edition, Bill Ritchie's Barney Bulldog strip still has a pleasant festive flavour.

With the exception of the serials and adventure strips every strip in this issue had a Christmas theme. Here's a character who only enjoyed a relatively short run, Esky Mo, with artwork by Robert Nixon...

On the next page was We Are The Sparky People drawn by Jim Petrie. Ideally this page should have appeared before the Esky Mo strip as it sets up the plot of Throgmorton inviting the other Sparky characters to the party...

Keyhole Kate was always a strange strip, being about a voyeur. Despite its limited premise the strip ran for many years, having originated in The Dandy No.1 in 1937! This Sparky page is by Albert Holroyd.

On the colourful back page is the party referred to in the Esky Mo and Sparky People strips, which is also attended by Frederick, Cedric, and the Inspector from L Cars, Hungry Horace, Pansy Potter, Barney Bulldog, Spoofer McGraw (and his pal Bo), Peter Piper, Invisible Dick, I-Spy (and Boss), and characters from Kings of the Castle. The page is drawn by the regular Puss and Boots artist, John Geering...

Also in this issue was a half page advertisement for that year's Sparky Book. A bargain at only 8/6d (42 and a half pence). Note also the reader's letters, which were full of allegedly true anecdotes but, unlike their equivalent in American comics, featured no comments on the strips themselves.

Sparky was way sassier than the other Thomsons comics. I saved loads of Puss and Boots strips, and still have them, mounted on archive - quality card (offcuts from Staffordshire Record Office!) John Geering was great. I was lucky enough to write many Gums scripts for him.

Yes, Sparky definitely had its own style. It started out aimed at a sort of intermediate age between Bimbo and Beano, but by the late 1960s had turned into something else entirely; quirkier and dafter than the other comics. Good stuff.

About this blog:

Established in 2006, BLIMEY! is dedicated to British comics past and present. Images are copyright their respective publishers and are only used here for review purposes.

The images of comics on my blog are scanned from my own personal comics collection or, in the case of some current issues, are promotional images sent to me by the publishers. On the rare occasion when I might use an image from another site I always credit the source. If you take images I've scanned to use on your own blog/site I'd appreciate it if you'd have the good manners to show the same courtesy.

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About Me

I work as a professional humour comics artist and writer and have been freelancing full time since 1984, creating many characters such as TOM THUG, PETE AND HIS PIMPLE, COMBAT COLIN, BRICKMAN, ROBO-CAPERS, DEREK THE TROLL, SUBURBAN SATANISTS and others.
I've freelanced for IPC, Marvel Comics, Egmont, Panini,D.C. Thomson, and many others, covering the comics field from originated characters to licensed properties, pre-school to adult on comics such as BUSTER, OINK!, BEANO, DANDY, TRANSFORMERS, SONIC THE COMIC, TOXIC, VIZ, CiTV TELLYTOTS, LEGO ADVENTURES, HERMAN HEDNING, SWEET FA, ACTION FORCE, SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN, RAMPAGE, LUCKY BAG COMIC, SWIFTSURE, WARLOCK, WHITE DWARF, ACES WEEKLY, THE DAREDEVILS, THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL, and many more.
My recent comics work has included:'Team Toxic' for Egmont's TOXIC magazine'Postman Prat', 'Kid Cops' and 'The Dark Newt' for THE DANDY'Rasher', 'Pup Parade', 'Lord Snooty' and 'Ivy the Terrible' for THE BEANO.
'The Daft Dimension' for DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE.